As medical device technologies continue to evolve, active implanted medical devices have gained increasing popularity in the medical field. For example, one type of implanted medical device includes neurostimulator devices, which are battery-powered or battery-less devices that are designed to deliver electrical stimulation to a patient. Through proper electrical stimulation, the neurostimulator devices can provide pain relief for patients or restore bodily functions.
Implanted medical devices (for example a neurostimulator) can be controlled using an electronic programming device such as a clinician programmer or a patient programmer. These programmers can be used by medical personnel or the patient to define the particular electrical stimulation therapy to be delivered to a target area of the patient's body, alter one or more parameters of the electrical stimulation therapy, or otherwise conduct communications with a patient. Advances in the medical device field have improved these electronic programmers. For example, some existing programmers allow the creation and display of pain maps and stimulation maps as part of the pain diagnosis and communication with the patient. However, the pain maps and stimulation maps on existing programmers have certain shortcomings. For example, conventional systems and methods of displaying pain maps and/or stimulation maps typically display the pain maps and/or stimulation maps at a single snapshot in time. As another example, conventional systems and method may not offer the user a clear and intuitive representation of how a pain map is overlapped with a stimulation map or with another pain map. Therefore, conventional methods of displaying pain maps and stimulation maps may not give the healthcare professional sufficient information to effectively treat the patient.
Therefore, although existing systems and methods for generating and displaying pain maps and stimulation maps have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in every aspect.